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MAL Ep. 23
Well, if this was Nick's last in-person game with us, we certainly sent him off with a bang. XD In this session the party thwarted a plague, spied on an illithid, revealed multiple plot twists, and sold all of their extra stuff. 1) First, Tisha identified three questions she thought were important: one, who is Xhriakw--it sounds like the timing of the Invasion depends upon his nature, so we'd better learn that. Two, why was Seven brought to Ruastin? She didn't find the hypothesis that the League of Snakes was trying to lure you there viable, because they didn't seem to have a good intelligence briefing on you (shooting rare and expensive dragon slaying arrows at a human and a drow), and there's also no obvious reason they wanted you in Ruastin. And third, why are they planning to attack a location in the middle of a forest--what is there that they want? Looking at a map, Red identified the location in the Utah Forest as being at or near a fort of the Green Guard, but still had no idea why an extraplanar army would want to take this fort as it is, indeed, in the middle of the wilderness. 2) Aler felt a compulsion to sit down and start writing. He did, and it turned out to be a letter from the head of Iscariot, a yuan-ti named Naruah. Besides responding to Aler's letter to him, he also informed Aler that three Iscariot members and four townspeople had been killed in a plague Skenebrax infected them with upon his return to Asture. Iscariot identified his curse as an "imprecatory prayer combined with a biological weapon." They have placed Skenebrax in an isolated place until a cure can be found for his curse, but Iscariot's diviner was among those killed in the plague. 3) The party paid a visit to Thrane Do'Ezzen, playing it safe by leaving Red and Aler behind. They tried to sell him the drow armor they took from the agent who attacked Bay, but he was not interested. They asked about his religious affiliation, and he said he was a worshipper of Lolth. They asked him about the necromancy ban, and got the response that he didn't expect anything to change as he hadn't been in the habit of casting necromantic spells in front of police detectives anyway. The party decided not to ask him about his meeting with Ander and left. 4) Red cast Scry on the illithid they had fought in the cult of Corrigar, and was able to observe him in an unknown room speaking with the demon who interrupted the Ker attack on you earlier. The conversation was elliptical-- "She didn't take the bait." "Too bad. What about the rest of it?" "The canary has flown." Then the demon frowned and mentally attacked Red. As the spell faded out, the party heard him yelling “God DAMN it will you tentacly bastards start securing locations, this is what magic was invented for—” :-D 5) Red hypothesized that perhaps the "bait" of Seven being held prisoner was intended for Lady Aldrayeth, since the enemies had prepared a substantial anti-dragon ambush and since Aldrayeth clearly cared enough about Seven's abduction to lend a major artifact to the cause. 6) The party remembered that Zadkiel and Red had found dead canaries in the birdcage in the disease lab, and speculated that the cult of Corrigar might be spreading disease by releasing infected birds. Aler said it could be a metaphor for any agent of disease, noting that Skenebrax had carried a plague back to Iscariot. The party decided to pay at the temple to have Zadkiel and Red, who had entered the disease lab, checked for signs of disease. Zadkiel, but not Red, seemed to be in the earliest stages of infection with a disease, which he was able to cure with the Healing proficiency. The party then guessed this might have been because Zadkiel fell into the scarab pit unlike Red, so they paid to check Angara, Khirg, and Aler. Aler was similarly affected, but not the others. The party then paid to have Tanya, Adriel, Jon, Bay, Syla, Sephy, and Blue all checked, revealing Jon was affected. Aler and Jon were cured. Zadkiel suggested checking Seven and Jarth, and Jarth was affected like Zadkiel, Aler and Jon were, but Seven was fully infected and contagious, and Cure Disease needed to be cast on her. The group realized that the characters who had caught the disease today were the ones who had touched Seven (Aler helped her out of the box, Jarth hugged her, Zadkiel checked to see if she needed healing, and Jon comforted her and tried to calm her down.) Everyone was now successfully healed, and the outbreak of an annoying plague next session that would have caused PCs and important NPCs to become comatose at inconvenient times for the party was now thwarted. XP awarded. 7) Adriel identified the party loot and sold some of it. (I'll total this up in another email later.) 8) The group returned to Philsin the Fixer to see whether he had found more information about the kidnappers like they had requested. After paying him, they learned that the man in blue woad is a feysworn sorcerer named Manathor. The party then haggled about Ander, trading the information they had learned for the information that Ander had apparently been consulting with Thrane about the possibility of raising some deepsea monster from the dead. 9) Khirg couldn't really think of anything else he wanted to do in town, but he went to the florist and bought some roses to apologize to Tanya for trying to kill her with an axe while mind-controlled. 10) The group went to see the oracular trolls as planned. Red asked them the question "How can we defeat the enemies of Malachi who threaten to invade us?" After reading his own entrails, the troll declared "To win at war thou must understand thy enemies, and thou art disadvantaged in this, for thy enemies already well understand humankind. Know that arcana is always most effectively countered by arcana, prayer by prayer, extraplanar magics by extraplanar magics, alien powers by alien powers… charge not a unit of longbowmen with dagger in hand. So… it is written!” 11) After sleeping the night, the party set off for Hastenport. The journey was uneventful, but they found guards posted at the gates to Hastenport, which has not been typical. Tegan and another guard dropped the bombshell that there was "a little bit of civil disorder in Hastenport," as Petros Alaric had been executed yesterday. Zadkiel started freaking out, but the guards didn't know any more details. One of them did offer that a local farmer had also been executed-- "I guess it's some conspiracy." 12) The party entered the city and went to the Mages' Guild. The members who usually tell you to go away whenever you try to enter ran to fetch Aldrayeth immediately once Jarth told them he had a 62,000 gp artifact to return to her. :-D The group shared their theory about the cult of Corrigar setting an ambush for Aldrayeth. She was surprised by that, but wondered if it might be possible that they had gotten garbled intelligence suggesting Aldrayeth was physically with the party, instead of just giving them aid. Aldrayeth did leave town earlier this week, though not for Ruastin. Perhaps there is a spy in the Mage's Guild. The party data dumped to Aldrayeth about Chavalk and the League of Snakes. Aler asked about his demonmark, and Aldrayeth took a lock of his hair to examine, saying she'd get back to him later. Zadkiel asked Aldrayeth about the possibility of making a truce with Threndix. She said that Threndix is actually quite a rational individual, but he IS prideful, and she isn't at all surprised if he wants to kill people who beat him up, drove him off, and humiliated him. She offered to try putting out feelers to him about it, though "he doesn't necessarily like me that much either, you know." Zadkiel asked again about Threndix' prophecy, and Aldrayeth told him that Threndix had foreseen his own death at the hands of someone half of Malachian blood and half extraplanar. Seven and Jarth left the party at this point. 13) The party went to the Grey Citadel to talk to Captain Black. She had received the telegram from Ames and was relieved to know Seven is all right. Zadkiel demanded to know what had happened with Petros but Black only responded flatly that "new evidence has surfaced" which she wasn't at liberty to divulge. Zadkiel became frustrated and dropped a few f-bombs, but Black held firm and said the party would have to talk to the Mayor. She said there had been riots in the Docks district, but that the Head Priestess of Fantarin was in Hastenport now and had publicly declared her belief in Petros' guilt, which should help calm the situation down. Asked about the King of Clocks, she confirmed that they had also nailed the tax document to the church door here. She said that there had been clockworkers living in Hastenport for a few years now, and that they rarely caused any trouble, but Black has no idea what they're after with this tax thing. "You know that old adage about motives, where you look for sex, money and power first? Well, I’m not sure that works for machines." The party decided not to show her the letter about the King of Clocks plotting to attack Asture. Noyar came in with a bloodhound on a lead and remarked that there had been no further sign of Harasket this week, but that he'd be betting Harasket went to Asture, "because the tax records that got nailed to the church the other day would have had to be taken from the tax office in Asture, and one of the shapeshifter's presumed victims was a Ducal tax collector. Do the math." The party asked whether the executed farmer was the one who the party believed Harasket had framed for this murder, and Black said yes. Zadkiel and Adriel became very angry about this, believing that they had proof of the Harasket's guilt, but in fact they had no such proof, and the farmer's possession of the tax collector's stolen belongings as well as being the last one to see him alive were apparently considered pretty strong evidence. 14) The party went to the Temple of Tallian, where Zadkiel and Father Valerian vented about Petros' execution to each other for a couple of minutes. Zadkiel revealed his angel situation to Valerian, who said there could be many possibilities (an arcane polymorph spell, for example a magic item he inadvertantly picked up causing him to be able to polymorph once a day; a holy grace giving him some divine magic buffs and the angel appearance is just flavor; etc.) However he definitively ruled out the idea of an angel taking over Zadkiel's body, with or without his free will remaining intact, because angels are inherently incapable of possessing mortals. 15) The party went to Vanessa's shop to ask about Naruah. She said he'd been in there earlier this morning buying nondetection potions--"hot item these days, only 750 gold!" She asked for Sephy back, but Sephy appeared to want to stay with Aler, which Vanessa granted graciously... perhaps a little too graciously. Aler's feeling a bit paranoid. He did get information about meeting with Naruah, but that will happen next session. 16) The party went to see the Mayor. After he set up several protective spells and swore the party to secrecy, he revealed that Petros is not really dead. "I am setting a trap for the trap-setter, and I am taking the gamble that the social crisis it is currently causing will end up being shallower and briefer than the one which otherwise would have happened. If they try to nail the Duke with proof he executed an innocent man before the city burns down, I reveal my hand and I win. If the city burns down first, I lose. With any luck, High Seeker Lorinell’s public insistence on Petros’ guilt will tamp sentiment down enough to tempt Harasket into fanning the fire." He asked for everything the party had learned about the League of Snakes, and they told him everything including the King of Clocks information. The Mayor said of the King of Clocks "The reports I have suggest that they might be golems or mechanical people displaced when whatever artificer made them was killed or fled in the Averdale coup. That’s speculative, though. They keep to themselves." The party did show him the letter about Averdale and the Keres, and the Mayor said he had no idea whether the King would want the Averdale regime to be overthrown or not, but that presumably the party had a chance to get either the King of Clocks or the Queen of Averdale to join their alliance, but certainly not both. The party concluded they would try the King of Clocks, since the Queen of Averdale seemed unlikely to ever work with their party of mostly magic users to help a duchy whose Church of Tallian they had a major schism with. Finally, the party discussed High Priest Ander and the different scenarios for how compromised the Temple of Sesharet was (running all the way from "This one guy was dominated by an illithid into betraying them" through "the whole temple is secretly allied with Corrigar and the League of Snakes.") Everyone concluded they don't have enough information and need to investigate the Temple of Sesharet, the complication being that any perception of the city cracking down on Sesharet worshippers at this point is likely to be disastrous at this point. Red suggested taking a diplomatic tack and asked the Mayor to authorize it. The Mayor, commenting that his career was unlikely to survive the Petros gambit anyway, agreed to come with the party to the police station. He also told them that Captain Black, Detective Noyar, High Seeker Lorinell, and themselves were the only ones to know Petros was still alive, and swore them to secrecy from telling anyone else. 17) The party went back to the police station, and found Lady Overton (the Ducal Emissary) meeting with Captain Black in her office. The Mayor explained that he'd heard enough to authorize a third-party operation to investigate the Temple of Sesharet, but the Emissary objected and demanded to know what kind of operation. Red did her best to make the investigation seem nonthreatening, but Overton wasn't having it and said Sesharet worshippers were rioting already and considering what had happened with Petros, ANY allegation against their own high priest would be taken badly, especially as he was still missing. The party explained that he wasn't really missing and the circumstances under which they had encountered him, but the "proof" they provided her-- the letter from Chavalk to the "Priests of Contagion"-- didn't mention Ander or Sesharet at all, and she overruled the Mayor's authorization and forbid the party from investigating the Temple of Sesharet. Then Tisha leaned around the mayor and put her badge on the table, saying "His Majesty's Secret Service. Mission reauthorized." Multiple WTF faces exchanged all round, but Overton backed down. Tisha agreed with Red that the extent of the problem within the Temple of Sesharet needed to be determined and that doing this carefully could reduce, not increase, civil unrest. 18) The PCs confronted Tisha and asked if she had been spying on them. She said "No, really, I actually was '''in Ruastin because my dad asked me to see if I could find Kalendral's daughter. My missing-persons game is pretty strong, and he was hoping I could get it sorted out. Just happened to bump into the rest of this stuff along the way. Things happen like that sometimes." 19) As they left the Grey Citadel, Zadkiel was surprised to see his father waiting outside for him. They went to the Temple of Altaris to talk, and Zadkiel's father revealed that he is not actually Zadkiel's birth father, in fact Zadkiel's mother was already pregnant when he met her. They had used magical precautions to hide his parentage, but apparently something had happened to shake it loose, and a draconian had apparently observed it in Ruastin and told his dragon master, who now wanted to kill Zadkiel. "Why the dragon holds a vendetta against your birth father I do not know. His name is Hastaros, and he is an angel of Moradin." Moradin is a dwarven god. 20) The party discussed Threndix' possible desire to kill Zadkiel because he is a half-extraplanar and a half-extraplanar is destined to kill Threndix. Zadkiel pointed out that Threndix had been trying to kill Tanya, not him. Khirg said Tanya is not half-extraplanar, but a fullblood fey being. Red realized that Threndix has been killing not only half-extraplanars but also extraplanars who were married to Malachians, since he is a prophet and can see events in the future, he may have been trying to kill Tanya to prevent her from having Khirg's children in the future, and killing Jendarion's wife and children for the same reason. Tisha confirms that Threndix killed her half-fiend grandmother ("though to be perfectly fair, she '''was kind of evil, from everything I hear,") but has never bothered her father or herself (who are less than half extraplanar.) 21) While still mulling this over, Aler got a letter back from Lady Aldrayeth, delivered by white dove. The letter read "Well, the good news is I was able to identify the identity of your demonic patron much more quickly than I’d been expecting. The bad news is that’s because it’s Orcus. I’m going to have to ask you to stay out of the Mages’ Guild from now on. Best of luck, you may need it." And there we ended for the session and possibly the summer, standing relatively unscathed in the craters of multiple plot explosions. Enjoy your travels!